23-year-old dies in Oliver Springs accident

A 23-year-old woman was killed in a single vehicle accident Tuesday night in the Norwood community of Oliver Springs.

Russel Langley/The Oak Ridger

A 23-year-old woman was killed in a single vehicle accident Tuesday night in the Norwood community of Oliver Springs.

Oliver Springs Police Department identified the victim Wednesday as Amy Hall, the driver of the car.

At about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Marcia Pemberton, of 422 England Drive, said she stepped out the back door of her residence and noticed that her dog was acting strangely.

Then, she said, she heard screams coming from the pond on her property.

Pemberton said she ran to the pond and found a woman, later identified as 54-year-old Donna McMillian, struggling in the water and screaming for help.

Pemberton said she went into the water and began pulling McMillian to the shore. McMillian, she said, kept telling her that “the young girl” was still in the car. Pemberton said she asked McMillian “What car?” McMillian then told her that she was the passenger in a car driven by a woman — later identified as Hall — and that the car was at the bottom of Pemberton’s pond.

Pemberton said she had already called 911 and by the time she reached the shore, she could hear sirens approaching her house. She said that McMillian repeatedly told her that Hall was prone to seizures.

ORPD Chief Kenneth Morgan confirmed Wednesday that Hall was pronounced dead at the scene by Anderson County Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel and taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Examiner’s office for autopsy.

Morgan stated in an email that when Oliver Springs firefighters arrived at the scene, they entered the water but were unable to locate the car in the deep pond. Pemberton said her family created the 18-foot deep pond.

When firefighters couldn’t locate the car, a request was sent out for mutual aid from other area law enforcement agencies and divers. Several departments responded to the scene.

Morgan stated that Anderson County Sheriff Paul White, Oliver Springs firefighter Adam Daugherty, and Marlow firefighter T.J. Giles entered the pond and located the car, as well as assisted in pulling it from the water.

At the scene Tuesday night, Sheriff White confirmed that Hall’s body was recovered from the car after it was pulled out of the pond at about 11:30 p.m. Holding his hand to the height of his chest, the sheriff said, “The silt on the bottom was this deep.”

White said that the car had come to rest on its roof and was mostly buried in the deep silt. The silt prevented the divers from being able to remove Hall’s body while the car was in the water. Onlookers could see that all of the divers and equipment coming out of the pond were covered in black, smelly silt, which had to be washed off with fire hoses.

McMillian was evaluated at the scene by EMS and released, Morgan said.

Chief Morgan said McMillian is the girlfriend of Hall’s father.

In his email to The Oak Ridger, Morgan wrote, “If possible mention the people and departments assisting, this was a tragic situation and could not have been completed without their help.”